WILD SHEEP OF ASIA AND AMERICA 271 



It is added that the height of old rams at 

 the shoulder is 3^ to 4 feet, that of females not 

 much less. Length from nose to rump (skins), 

 males 6 to 6^ feet, females 5 J ; tail without hair i 

 inch, with hair 3 ; ear 6 ; basal length of male skull 

 13, breadth at orbits 7 J. The largest recorded 

 horns of this race measure 57 inches in length and 

 1 8f in girth, with a tip-to-tip interval of 29 inches. 



As regards habits. Dr. Blanford observes that 

 " this magnificent sheep inhabits the bare undulating 

 Tibetan plateau in herds, keeping to open valleys 

 and low stony slopes. In summer the rams are 

 found in small parties of from three or four to 

 about fifteen, apart from the ewes. The rutting- 

 season is in winter ; at this time the great sheep 

 inhabit the lower and more sheltered Tibetan 

 valleys. The young are born about May or 

 une. 



The so-called Ovzs brookei appears to be a 

 hybrid of this race, the result of a male argali having 

 wandered into Zanskar, where it consorted with a 

 herd of urial.^ A presumed hybrid between a male 

 urial and a female Tibetan argali has likewise been 

 recorded.* 



The argali of northern Mongolia iJD. ammon 

 jubata) appears to be in some degree intermediate 

 between the Tibetan and Siberian races, having, at 



' See Stemdale, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1896, p. 205. 

 * Blanford, ibid., 1885, p. 851. 



